The RCMP is investigating allegations against two former instructors at the Canadian Police College, CBC News has learned, following complaints from former staff that their earlier allegations of bullying and harassment were ignored.

Allegations of bullying are not new for the Mounties — in fact, the force has been rocked by hundreds of complaints in the last decade.

In 2012, after a long investigation, the RCMP public complaints commission found rampant bullying in the police force. It unearthed 718 complaints filed by employees between 2005 and 2011, and found almost half the complaints were from men.

Many of the complainants argue that management ignored their concerns for years, leaving them with PTSD and other mental health conditions.

Const. Janet Merlo, who has launched the class action, told CBC News she faced years of "overtly sexual comments" from her boss, including "offering to rub my breast ... offering to give me his 'big Italian salami' and asking if 'I liked it on top?'"

She also alleges a sergeant left a dildo and a vacuum attachment on her desk.

Merlo says other women that are part of the lawsuit have faced similarly disturbing treatment from their male colleagues.

2. The RCMP then tried to fire some of the alleged victims of sexual harassment

3. RCMP officers have been accused of raping indigenous women in B.C.

They interviewed women and girls in First Nations communities along the "Highway of Tears."

The group heard stories of alleged police pepper-spraying and using Tasers on young aboriginal girls, and of women being strip-searched by male officers.

The report also contains troubling and graphic allegations of physical and sexual abuse, including from a woman, identified as homeless, who describes how an officer took her outside of town and raped her.

The RCMP promised to investigate the claims, and said it is taking the accusations seriously.

4. An RCMP staffer had sex with a unit commander in a police car while on duty

Mountie cleared of misconduct charge2:35

In 2012, Const. Susan Gastaldo was found guilty of disgraceful misconduct, which involved having sex in a police car during work hours and using an RCMP BlackBerry for "sexting" with her unit commander, Staff Sgt. Travis Pearson. Both were docked pay.

​​During a hearing on the incident, Galstaldo claimed she was coerced into a sexual relationship, while Pearson, a former RCMP professional standards supervisor, claimed it was consensual.

The board decided Gastaldo was lying and only alleged she was sexually assaulted after her husband found her Blackberry and learned of the affair.

Later, the RCMP secretly cleared Galstaldo and quietly dropped all the charges against her.

5. RCMP's former top spokeswoman goes public after years of alleged abuse

During her tenure as the RCMP's spokesperson, Cpl. Catherine Galliford announced the arrest of Robert William Pickton and revealed charges had been laid in the Air India bombing.

Despite her high profile, she alleged her supervisor was a serial abuser.

"Everything that came out of his [a supervisor's] mouth was sexual," Galliford said in an interview with CBC News. "If I had a dime for every time one of my bosses asked me to sit on his knee, I'd be on a yacht in the Bahamas right now."

Galliford says she faced constant sexual advances from several senior officers from the moment she graduated from the RCMP Academy in 1991.

Galliford says the command and control structure at the RCMP encouraged Mounties to stay quiet, or risk getting reprimanded.

Fox went public about her sexuality in 2012 in a 10-minute video produced by the RCMP's youth unit. The Mounties told their stories about overcoming bullying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Canadians.

In her lawsuit, Fox claims it wasn't her sexuality but her learning disabilities that drew harassment.